Killing a man? 'It's no big deal': A sneer from mother of thug who punched Asperger's sufferer, as Attorney General is deluged with calls to increase sentence (Rebecca Evans + Jack Doyle, The Daily Mail, 26 febbraio 2014):

The mother of a thug who killed an autistic man dismissed his crime as ‘no big deal’ last night. In a display of callous indifference, Sherron O’Hagan said she did not know ‘what all the fuss was about’. Her son Lewis Gill killed Andrew Young with a single punch in an unprovoked attack captured on CCTV. He was given just four years but a public outcry may lead to a longer sentence. The Attorney General says he will examine whether the jail term was too short. Dominic Grieve’s office was deluged with more than 110 complaints within hours of the case becoming public. Mr Young’s mother Pamela has dismissed the sentence as an ‘absolute joke’ – Gill could even be free within two years. But Mrs O’Hagan, speaking from her home in Sutton, South London, yesterday insisted her son was a ‘good kid’. The 41-year-old mother of three told the Mail: ‘It was just an accident. It’s not a big deal. This will all be forgotten tomorrow. He’s my son, what do you want me to say? He didn’t mean to kill him and that’s that.’ Mrs O’Hagan, who was not married to Gill’s father Richard McKenzie, added: ‘This story will be the lining of chips tomorrow. I just don’t understand what all the fuss is about.’ Gill, a convicted robber, punched 40-year-old Mr Young to the ground on a busy Bournemouth street on November 6 last year. Shocking CCTV footage shows him calmly walking forward to deliver the deadly punch after Mr Young reprimanded his friend for cycling on the pavement. Mr Young, who had Asperger’s and the mental age of a 14-year-old, fell back and cracked his head on the pavement. He died the next day with his 71-year-old mother at his bedside. Gill, 20, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to four-and-a-half years by Judge Keith Cutler at Salisbury Crown Court. With half his sentence served on licence, and allowing for time already served, he could be out in just two years. The sentence was condemned by Victims’ Commissioner Baroness Newlove, whose husband Garry was killed by a gang vandalising his car. ‘I’m appalled by this disgraceful act of violence – my thoughts go out to the victim’s family and friends at this time,’ she said. ‘It’s entirely right that the sentence will be reviewed for this shocking crime. ‘I know how traumatic it is to go through the courts as a victim – when you are already so hurt and vulnerable. That’s why I urge everyone involved in this case to put victims first in the pursuit of justice.’ The Young family’s MP, Tobias Ellwood, welcomed Mr Grieve’s review as well. ‘It would be wrong for me to make a judgment about how long the sentence ought to be, it is not the role of an MP to do that,’ he said. ‘But the message needs to go out that this kind of behaviour should not be tolerated. I would be the first to advocate people standing up and speaking out when they see wrongdoing in their community and that is one of the reasons that a sentence like this is totally out of line.’ Mr Grieve has until March 21 to decide whether he thinks the sentence was too soft. If – as seems likely – he does, the case will go to the Court of Appeal where three senior judges could lengthen it. The Daily Mail website was also deluged with criticism of the sentencing judge, Keith Cutler, who decided Gill did not intend to cause ‘grievous harm’. One wrote that it was a ‘sad day for justice’ and another demanded that ‘criminal friendly judges’ should be held accountable to the public and another One reader commented: ‘The man is clearly dangerous and violent. Even if he didn’t intend to cause death he punched someone who was clearly no threat to him and who made no threatening gestures of violence back. ‘Isn’t it about time the people were heard? These lenient sentences are harmful to the decent members of society.’A statement issued on behalf of the Young family said: ‘When we first heard that Gill was given a four year sentence we thought it was too short and expected him to get more than that. It’s ridiculous. He (Gill) didn’t mean to kill him so a life sentence would have been extreme but he deserves more than what he was given. ‘Looking at his criminal record he is obviously a trouble maker and we were hoping he would get about seven or eight years.‘A sentence so short might mean that he could do something else dangerous in the future.’

But Judge stays silent over short sentence

The judge who sent Lewis Gill to prison for just four years did not respond to criticism of what has been called an ‘extremely lenient’ sentence. Keith Cutler, 63, refused to discuss the case yesterday at Winchester Crown Court where he spent the day hearing a trial into an alleged conspiracy to commit blackmail. The Mail was told by a court usher: ‘He has refused to talk about the case.’ The judge has however previously spoken about his approach to sentencing. He has said in an interview: ‘Every offence has its different features, every mitigation has its own strengths and all those elements are brought into sentencing.’ He added: ‘Some cases get to you. When I come out of court, I say “That’s it. I’ve made my decision. If I am wrong the Court of Appeal will deal with it”.’ The father of two, who is a lay canon at Salisbury Cathedral, has also defended his sometimes controversial approach to the legal process. This was most notable in his handling of the inquest into the shooting of Mark Duggan, where he held a 20-second silence to commemorate the gangster’s death. The judge admits that he enjoys having the power to show leniency but he reacted angrily to ministerial criticism of ‘soft’ sentencing back in 2006 when he was secretary of the Council of Circuit Judges. In October 2004, he handed teenager Louis Moroncini an 18-month supervision order for striking Beverley Brennan round the head with a 4ft wooden pole during a robbery. Judge Cutler told the defendant: ‘You know, and I know, that you richly deserve custody and you would have got three years. But you must know that if you fail me and go wrong on this order, you will be back before the courts.’ After the hearing, nursery nurse Mrs Brennan said: ‘When the judge was passing the sentence, I had to leave the courtroom because I started having a panic attack. ‘I know he’s got a curfew, but I’ll still have that worry that he could go out.’ In September 2004, Abdel Atif Gholam, 29, an Afghan refugee who had no licence or insurance when he veered on to the wrong side of the road and killed a motorcyclist, was jailed by Judge Cutler for just two years. The judge lives in a sprawling six-bedroom detached house in the heart of the English countryside. Situated off a quiet lane, the £1million property offers picturesque views and has a well-tended garden packed with tall trees and ancient woodland.

VIDEO: Shocking moment man dies from single punch to the head in unprovoked attack (Dion Dassanayake, The Daily Express, 25 febbraio 2014):

CCTV footage, revealed in court, shows Andrew Young falling into the road and not moving after a sudden blow to the face from Lewis Gill.

Shockingly the 20-year-old attacker will be freed in around two years – a move that has been greeted with outrage from Mr Young’s heartbroken family.

Seconds before he was fatally struck, Mr Young had been involved in an argument with Gill’s friend Victor Ibitoye, who he told not to cycle on the pavement.

Yob Gill then took offence and punched him once in the face before walking away without a care for his victim.

Mr Young, who suffered from Aspergers Syndrome, was rushed to hospital in Bournemouth but died the following day from head injuries, with his mother Pamela at his side.

Gill admitted one charge of manslaughter at Salisbury Crown Court and was jailed for just four-and-a-half years.

Today Mr Young’s mother reacted with fury, saying: "I sat with him when he died. I wish that awful man who took my son away had pleaded not guilty so he would have got a longer sentence.

"The sentence is an absolute joke. I'm a committed Christian but I think that if someone takes a life they should be prepared to forfeit their own."

The attack happened at 4.25pm on November 6 last year outside a Tesco Express in Charminster, Bournemouth.

Mr Young was able to speak several language but had the social skills of a 14-year-old because he suffered from Aspergers Syndrome.

The court heard Mr Young told Mr Ibitoye during the argument that riding his bike on the pavement was a 'dangerous activity'.

Mrs Young said: "He was very particular because of his Asperger's and he wouldn't have liked seeing someone riding a bicycle on the pavement because it was dangerous."

She said her son often attended Sunday mass at the St Edmund Champion Church and was a member of the naval section of the Combined Cadet Force.

Taxi Driver Simon Scott, who knew Mr Young for six years, said he "wouldn't hurt a fly".

He said: "Andrew was always friendly and polite and often struck up conversations with strangers at the bus stop near the taxi rank.

"Andrew was gentle and wouldn't hurt a fly."

A post-mortem revealed that Mr Young had no injuries to indicate he tried to defend himself.

The court heard Mr Ibitoye did not know what Gill was about to do and cycled away from Mr Young after the argument.

Prosecutor Kerry Maylin said: "The defendant claims he was worried about Andrew Young because he thought he was being menacing.

"He said Andrew Young put his hand to his pocket and he thought he was going to pull out a knife or a gun."

The court heard Gill punched Mr Young after he allegedly made a racist remark.

Judge Keith Cutler said Mr Young did not represent a threat to Gill.

He said: "You are a powerfully built young man.

"You must have known that it was going to cause a significant injury and, very sadly, it did."

Gill was also sentenced last Friday to two, three months sentences for the attack while on a suspended sentence for robbery and for handling stolen goods.

The four jail term along with the two three month sentences will run consecutively.

'Your benefits system is crazy. It's like finding a sackful of cash left on the road': How shocking admission by Rudi and his huge Romanian family debunks Eurocrat's claims that 'benefit tourism is a myth' (Sue Reid, The Daily Mail, 14 febbraio 2014):

Rudi Ion struggles to count up the children from his huge Romanian clan who now call Britain home. It could be 100, he tells me.

‘I’ve got 25 cousins all living around Nottingham, each with three or four kids,’ he adds with a loud laugh.

Rudi is speaking from his rented three-bedroom terrace house in Bridlington Street, a shabby part of the Midlands city where he’s settled with his wife Anda and their two sons, nine-year-old Ionut and Constantin, six.

His mother Elena, 53, and sister Ana, who is 32, live there, too.

Rudi is an ebullient 28-year-old who speaks English well. He doesn’t seem surprised when I tell him that a recent controversial report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that more than 25 per cent of children born in England and Wales in 2011 were to foreign mothers — up 16 per cent on the decade before.

The highest number among women from Europe — 2.93 children per family on average — were the offspring of Romanians, and a spokesman for the ONS has suggested that Britain’s generous benefits system could encourage the migrants to have more children so they can claim extra money.

What is particularly striking, according to the ONS, is that Romanians who come to Britain are actually having more than twice as many children as they would at home, where the average is 1.25 children born to each family.

This week, the EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, Laszlo Andor, attacked the so-called xenophobia of British politicians over the issue of migrants coming to Britain and claiming welfare. He grandiosly announced: ‘Benefits tourism as such is a myth.’

Yet Rudi readily admits that our generous benefits’ culture does encourage Romanians to uproot to the UK, where they can claim state money for the children they bring with them.

‘Your benefits system is crazy — I would actually say it was sick,’ he says, as he makes a gesture involving sticking his two fingers down his throat.

‘Of course Romanians will settle in Britain if they get this kind of money. It is like walking down the road and seeing a sack full of cash that has been dropped, picking it up and no one saying anything.

‘If my people bring more children in, or have more children here, there are more benefits. So, of course, they have babies.’

His family came here from District Two, a multicultural area of the Romanian capital, Bucharest, after Rudi had first tried his luck in eight other countries dotted around the European Union.

He admits: ‘I made my way by pick-pocketing, thieving and other small crimes.

‘I was put into prison or arrested by the police in Norway, Finland, Sweden, Spain, Italy, France, Austria and Germany before I arrived here. My German is quite good because they jailed me there for six months, and the Austrian prison was very tough.’

He explains that his favoured modus operandi in both France and Germany was to stand in a telephone box and pretend to make a call and then run out of coins.

He would turn to the next person waiting in the queue and ask them if they had a Euro to give him. If the unsuspecting person got out their purse or wallet, he would snatch it and run off.

‘But I don’t do bad things anymore because I am not poor and live on your benefits,’ he told me. ‘I arrived in the UK on January 7 three years ago, and went to the Nottingham job centre to get a National Insurance number a few weeks after.

‘I came to Nottingham to stay with a cousin and found a good private accountant who told me how to claim the benefits. I soon brought over my family, too.

‘I have never been told to look for work by the job centre. I have never called back there after I got the National Insurance number. Why would I want a real boss when I get £300 put into my bank account each week for nothing?

‘There is the child benefit of £170 a month for Ionut and Constantin, too. In Romania, we were only given £17 a month for them. Now I sing “God praise your Queen Elizabeth” every day, because we have arrived in heaven.’

The £300 Rudi receives each week is made up of housing benefit, to cover his £500 a month rent (the house is owned by a private landlord), and he also receives tax credits (paid weekly or monthly) because his self-employed income is so low.

Other EU countries where Rudi tried his luck were not so generous.

‘When I was in the rest of Europe, I never got benefits,’ he says. ‘In France, they chucked me out of the country and gave me £250 in Euros to fly back to Bucharest. ‘But, of course, I just returned to Western Europe again.

‘There is nothing for a Roma gipsy in Romania. The authorities treat us like dogs. They beat the kids in the schools and they refuse to give us jobs.

‘It is different here. We are even welcome at the GP’s surgery when we are ill.’

Up until now, Rudi has taken advantage of a loophole in immigration rules by stating he is self-employed. Under this umbrella, he says he sells scrap metal or does some decorating, which has allowed him to claim social welfare, free healthcare and schooling.

But on January 1 this year, all EU work restrictions were lifted, meaning migrants from former Communist countries of Romania and Bulgaria can now claim benefits, self-employed or not, three months after they arrive.

I met Rudi recently outside the Romanian Consulate in Kensington High Street, West London. He was getting out of his blue Mercedes and carrying his toddler niece, Beatrice (who was born in Britain) to get her first Romanian passport.

It means she will be able to travel back and forth on holidays with her extended family to Bucharest, where Rudi still has a house — empty now because everyone has decamped here.

Just days before, the Romanian Ambassador to Britain, Dr Ion Jinga, had said that only a ‘couple of dozen’ Romanians had come to Britain following the relaxation of rules in January.

That pronouncement was followed by David Cameron’s claim that arrivals of Romanians (and Bulgarians) were ‘reasonable’, although he admitted no one had done a headcount, so was guessing from ‘what I read and see’.

So did Rudi think that Cameron and the Ambassador were right?

‘Of course not,’ he told me, before inviting me to Nottingham to meet his family the next day.

There, he explained further: ‘Each bus that comes from Romania is full of people coming to live here. Each plane has 20, 30 or 40 of these passengers on board, and we Roma are also driving here by private car. We are not talking about visitors but those who come to stay.

‘You will get more people when the weather gets to spring. We feel good here because it is a better life. At home, even if you offer to work on a pig farm, the farmer says “No” because you are a gipsy.’

He adds: ‘It is political strategy to say there are few Romanians arriving in the UK. If the authorities tell the British public that we are claiming benefits there will be a row. They do not count the numbers because they dare not. They need the matter to remain a secret.’

He introduces me to six other adult members of his family who, he says, all claim benefits of some kind. In the living room, two of the extended Ion clan’s many children — Antonio, three, and Andrea, six — are bouncing on a bed, which serves as a sofa.

Two pictures hang on the wall above it: one of Jesus Christ (Rudi’s family are devout Christians) and the other — incongruously — of Cliff Richard.

A dark-haired baby boy, 10-month-old Darius, is being breastfed by his mother Veronika, Rudi’s 30-year-old sister, who is visiting but lives in another house in Nottingham.

Today, some of the extended family’s children are at school, though Rudi’s wife and sons are on a long holiday in Bucharest.

‘She will still be able to claim the UK child benefits while they are there,’ says Rudi confidently.

It is an overcast day in Nottingham, but the scene in the house is one of family bonhomie. Coffee is served by Rudi’s sister, and I am offered a cigarette. There is lots of laughter as Rudi holds court.

The family are anxious to introduce to me a seventh family member, the latest arrival from Bucharest, a 31-year-old cousin called Marian Barbu, who landed at Luton airport on the early morning flight that day.

Rudi has just driven down the M1 and back to pick him up.

‘You see,’ Rudi says with triumph in his voice, ‘we will sell our last possessions, even the TV, to buy the £120 plane ticket to get here.

‘This morning, there were lots of men like Marian coming through the arrivals hall. They were not here for a holiday but to try to make a better life for themselves, one way or another, in the UK.’

He shows me Marian’s airline ticket stub to prove he is telling the truth. ‘We Romanians can go anywhere we want in Europe now — but, of course, it is only Britain that pays us to live.

‘Of course, we want to be here. I will only run away when your country starts sinking under the weight of people, which will happen one day.’

Then he turns to the big TV set on the wall in the overcrowded living room. It is blaring out the news from a Romanian TV channel showing six-foot snowdrifts in Bucharest.

As Rudi points to the chilly scenes, he asks frankly: ‘Who would want to be there when you look after us so well here?’